


I'll Meet You There, In the End

by RoseintheWind



Series: Iwaoi Week 2020 [2]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Chronological Time Jumps, Final Haikyuu Quest, Iwaizumi is TIRED, M/M, Magic, Temporary Character Death, Time Loop, Violence, iwaoi week 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-02
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:27:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27846002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoseintheWind/pseuds/RoseintheWind
Summary: (and the end, and the end, and the end, and the end)~~Iwaoi Week Day 2 - Childhood/Confessions~~Iwaizumi doesn't remember much from when he was a child, or even on the date of his death. So when he's sent back in time he gets a reminder. But when one reminder turns into multiple, he wonders how long he'll feel the creeping feeling of blood running down and the cold of death's grasp for.
Relationships: Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru
Series: Iwaoi Week 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2035180
Kudos: 23





	I'll Meet You There, In the End

_ It's cold, too cold to be a normal summer day. Perhaps it's the change in season, or a village nearby struck in pure economic terror, but it's cold. His blood feels cold. The scene he's in radiates hues of blue amongst the supposed warm summer sun.  _

Oikawa is laying on the ground, trapped beneath Iwaizumi's legs and blood soaks both of their attire. Oikawa has his hand cupped to Iwaizumi's jaw, a smile carrying so many regrets pasted to his face. A singular tear runs into the ground when above, many fall to Oikawa's torso. 

Iwaizumi suspends his sword up high for too long, far too long than what it should take for a hero to kill a villain. 

He fists one of his hands into Oikawa's clothes and starts to bring his sword off his target. 

Oikawa's smile dies down. "Iwa-chan, don't do this."

"I can't...I can't kill you!"

"You have to. If you won't do it for me, do it for everyone there." He doesn't have to point to where he's talking about. "Please. Don't let your feelings get in the way."

"Are you kidding you asshole?! Do you think that I still would be able to kill you? Do you have  _ any  _ empathy? Who do you think I am?"

"Well... I suppose your determination is admirable to come back with enough people to defend you but at this rate, it simply won't be enough! You're  _ weak _ . Those people in the village? They're all mine to control. I will make them fall into pits of lava and make you  _ watch _ . And your mother? Burned alive at the stake."

"You don't mean that."

"Oh, but I do." Oikawa snarls and holds his hand in the direction of the town. 

Iwaizumi's eyes widen and he repositions his sword to Oikawa's chest as he gracelessly falls to the ground. 

"What will you do Iwa-chan?" Oikawa whispers.

"You're a sadistic  _ asshole _ ."

"Come and  _ kill me  _ then!"

The blade is swift. 

Oikawa's eyes widen and he coughs a sputter of blood. That smile, one of melancholy and defeat sits on his face. 

Iwaizumi throws the sword as far as he can muster. 

"No.  _ No, no, no, no. _ Tooru don't!"

He laughs as if he'd won the battle. "Well, look at that. I-Iwa-chan was able to see through me, right until t-the end."

"No, NO." He tries to cover Oikawa's wound with his hand to stop the bleeding. If he'd kept the sword in, maybe,  _ maybe  _ he'd have more time, but he doesn't and Oikawa's fading fast because he wasn't around long enough-

"Don't worry, Iwa-chan. You did the right thing." The light in his eyes, it too is fading too fast-

" _ Tooru _ !"

"I love you..."

"I love you too you idiot! Just please-don't-"

Oikawa smiles a little wider, albeit as weak as the original was. His eyes slide shut as Iwaizumi holds him. 

His skin feels too cold. 

Iwaizumi holds him and screams until he's exhausted his voice and his tears. He passes out from weariness and fatigue right next to Oikawa, both of them bathing in blood.

" _ Hey _ ! Hey! Are you okay?"

Iwaizumi jumps but finds he can't move. 

"Are you okay? You could've fallen! Y'know if you're not going to answer me, I could just put you back up in the tree and let you fall again!"

He knows this voice. He recognizes these lines. His eyes jolt open just as a smaller Oikawa is about to drop him.

"Wait!" His voice comes out higher pitched than he's used to.

Oikawa huffs. "Well finally! Too bad you responded, it would've been funny to see you fall."

"Where am I?" He feels lighter, and not just because Oikawa is holding on to him with magic.

Oikawa snorts. "How was your nap? Took such a long one you don't remember where you left off?"

"No you ass. I was just-"

Oikawa gasps. "You just swore." 

Iwaizumi rolls his eyes. "Yeah and? I would've thought you were used to-"  _ Wait _ . "You're six years old right?"

"Woah, how did you guess? Are you a demon that can read people's minds?"

"You just look like it."

Oikawa frowns and Iwaizumi freezes. But it seems Oikawa is too young to contemplate the situation around him. "Oh, I know what we can do today! Follow me! You're going to be my best friend now! And my name's Oikawa Tooru!" 

Iwaizumi's heart melts. What a strange way to dream, by seeing the day they first met. His chest pangs, knowing exactly what happens sixteen years from now wasn't exactly an easy thing to recall. But for the time being, he'd take a healthy, young Oikawa smiling and pulling him along. 

"Iwaizumi Hajime." He tells him back like it's the first time he's ever spoken the words.

Oikawa smiles. "Iwa-chan it is then."

Wandering around with his younger body was something Iwaizumi wasn't used to. He didn't have boundless amounts of energy, but enough to stay and keep up to Oikawa. The entire day he runs laps around Oikawa's plans and takes in a kingdom that didn't turn war-torn. 

He's perfect, Iwaizumi thinks as Oikawa uses the sparks he calls magic and the power he calls impossibility. He uses it however he wants, as he sprints around the castle with his hair whipping in the wind. The horns on his head, Iwaizumi remembers, how the horns on his head don't make him someone soulless now, not like when he gives said soul up in a time that seems so far ahead. 

When the day is over and he hears his mother call him back home, he tells Oikawa something, just in case he can influence this dream somehow.

"Hey, Oikawa."

"Hmm?" Oikawa turns his head back toward him before saying goodbye.

Iwaizumi now isn't sure how to phrase what he's about to say. This is a six-year-old Oikawa after all, who knows if he'll even remember, but he has to try to make him understand. 

"Just be careful with your magic, okay? It's not worth it to lose yourself."

"Don't worry Iwa-chan! I've been really careful with it! I'm not going to end up as some scary monster, I promise. Well, see you tomorrow!"

They bid goodbye. 

Iwaizumi wishes he could've done more.

"Hajime, honey, you don't want to be late! You  _ do  _ remember what day it is, right?"

Iwaizumi groggily stirs out of his dreamless sleep. "What?"

"Tooru's coronation is today! And you have to set out in an hour! They don't want to delay his crowning any more than they have to! So up you go!"

Iwaizumi falls off his bed, one better fitted to his size. His mother, she sounds so happy. 

"Oikawa's coronation?" He says from the floor now that his mind caught up with her words. 

"Hajime are you okay?" She feels around his head. "No bumps...just be careful okay? I'm worried about you and Tooru."

He remembers this day. He remembers falling. He remembers his mother waking him up. He remembers leaving with Oikawa and the army for the attack on Shiritorizawa. He remembers falling and a light picking him up. He remembers the look in Oikawa's eyes and how he hadn't come back to the village until he battled him one last time in a ruined country. 

"Thanks, mom." He says quickly, in hardly a breath. "I've got to go."

"Hajime! Don't leave!" She sighs. "Breakfast in on the table! If you don't eat I'll personally come back for you!"

His small smile stretches fondly, the nostalgia of such a domestic conversation pleases his ears to personally hear it one last time. 

"Thank you! I'll see you later!"

He's not sure if he's telling the truth this time.

He rushes to the palace in full armour to see a startled Oikawa peer back at him from his room in the castle. 

"Iwa-chan! What are you doing here! Everyone's been waiting for you!"

"Oikawa-you have to cancel the raid today."

Oikawa's eyebrows crease. "What are you talking about?"

"The battle today-we'll lose. They'll flank us and catch us off guard with their numbers after they pull a surprise attack on us. We don't have a chance."

Oikawa blinks twice, unable to process what he's just heard. "What? Where's this coming from?" 

"Look, I just-have a feeling."

"You have a feeling about something that specific?"

"Yes. Please, you have to call it off."

Oikawa scans him up and down before putting his forehead to his. "You're not sick..." He mutters. "You sound like you know, but I can't. I don't have the power for that yet. Are you sure it can't wait until after I'm crowned?"

"No. You have to do something."

Oikawa hesitates, pondersome. "Okay. I'll see what I can do. Just stay here." Oikawa glances over at him once more, assessing his motions before exiting the room.

He comes back ten minutes later, a frown etched onto his face.

"We can't change it, not when we have the preparations in place." 

"Is that what you said?" 

Oikawa sighs. "No, that's what my father said. I'm sorry, Iwa-chan but I'm sure it was just a dream. We'll be okay! We've trained months for this attack, and I'm not going to let the opportunity go to waste. Let's go okay? And after, we can make all the plans we want because I'll be king!" Oikawa hopefully grins, and maybe Iwaizumi thinks, it won't turn out the same way after all. 

He's sorrily mistaken. 

Shiritorizawa has always had some of the best-trained soldiers under the powerful king Ushijima and his general Washijou, experts in combat over the years. But Aoba Johsai had spent months training in new tactics to defeat them and win over what they had lost in many battles previous. Just because Shiritorizawa had taken their money and resources years ago, didn't mean that they couldn't plan to take it back, as impossible as it seemed to others. 

The squadron moves out as soon as Oikawa and Iwaizumi take their places within them. It's a two hour trip at the crack of dawn, the colours blending into the blue of the sky as they fade below the horizon. 

An hour and a half in, Shiritorizawa expects them and takes out three-quarters of the fleet. Not many people still stand. Iwaizumi recalls this, the short sequence of events all fall in front of him.

Oikawa lights up his hand brighter than before, and he ends up injuring it.

He watches as the other soldiers are all killed by bloodloss or directly from Shiritorizawa's soldiers after the fight is over. Oikawa thinks he takes out the last one but there's one more hidden-

"Oikawa!" He shouts as the last remaining come to group up and take the two of them head-on. They almost complete it, they almost survive. But Iwaizumi doesn't notice one of them plunge his sword into him, and it feels like time has rewound itself once again. The pain is so real if he was still thinking that it was a dream. 

" _ HAJIME _ !" Oikawa shrieks. 

He burns the last of them alive before running to Iwaizumi. 

"No, no, you can't die on me yet Iwa-chan! I still have to get crowned! You have to be there as my official knight!" Oikawa's sobbing and talking gibberish. His healing spell doesn't work fast enough. 

Iwaizumi, once again, feels himself plunge into the darkness before grounding out a few words. 

"Please. Don't use it...Tooru." 

That's all he feels before he wakes up, deserted on the grounds of blood. Panic overtakes him. 

History was beginning to repeat itself. 

_ I'm sorry, Hajime. I know you told me not to, but I have to break a promise, just this once _ .

He's an  _ idiot _ . But he knows he's never heard those words uttered before by him. He's changed history at the cost of rewriting the same story. Just one more time, he thinks. Just once more because he knows he can fix it. 

When he gets back to the town, his worst fears are confirmed. Oikawa's eyes have turned crimson burnt, and he's addressing a public crowd on his new rules. A crown sits on his head, proof of his authority. His clothes are a match of red and black, evil seeping into his core instead of the pure blue of Aoba Johsai. His hand has been perfectly healed, telling that Oikawa had been suscepted to the mercy of his power.

He feels sick. 

He wishes he could tell his mother he's sorry that he abandoned her as he runs as far as he can and slumps against a tree.

"When's Iwaizumi-san going to wake up?"A high-pitched voice asks. 

"Don't bother him dumbass, we're battling the demon king today! If he needs sleep then just leave him." Someone else chides the other voice. 

He bolts up from the tent, breathing heavily. 

"Are you okay?" Hinata bounces up to him and asks once he notices Iwaizumi's heavy intakes. 

"Uh, yeah." 

"Are you excited to battle the great king?" 

"Don't ask him that! Iwaizumi-san and Oikawa-san know each other!" Kageyama barks. 

"Ah! Sorry!"

"No...don't worry about it."

Now,  _ this  _ was incredibly familiar. He'd just lived through this day. 

They take on Oikawa, the group gets split from him and he's left with him alone, and he kills Oikawa and passes out. 

How does he prolong this? How does he stop the inevitable? But the better question is, how is he even here?

"Maybe we shouldn't do it today." But when? And how can he not kill Oikawa?

"Iwaizumi-san are you sure you're feeling okay?" Kenma asks beside him. "We've been planning this for months. I've looked through every possible option. It has to be today."

He frowns as one more person asks if he's alright before remembering the day.  _ Shit. That's right, the anniversary of the coronation.  _ He thinks. Where all of the residents pay their respects to the fallen and leave the town for almost the entire day and return at night to celebrate Oikawa's rise to power. There wouldn't be another opportunity to strike again, at least not until a year's time. It would be incredibly suspicious to bargain for another year.

So he does the next best thing and prolongs his allies. 

"I had a dream." He lies. "About the battle. And I think it would be best if I first tried to negotiate."

"What?" Comes a chorus of voices among their group. 

"Are you sure you know the demon king well enough now to talk like friends?" Kenma asks.

"Yes. I believe I'll be able to get through to him one way or another."

"Your dream makes me nervous...but if you think it's the best option then I agree with you."

"Me too!" Hinata jumps.

"Me as well." Kageyama echos.

The mostly silent Aone simply nods. 

When they storm the vacant castle, Iwaizumi's the only one who steps into the throne room.

"Look who finally decided to show his face. I revive you and you never come visit? How rude Iwa-chan."

"I'm not here to listen to you, or whatever you've become. You have to listen to me."

"Why should I do that after the person who was supposed to be at my right hand never bothered to show up?"

"Have you looked at yourself? I heard you do exactly what you weren't supposed to! I told you-and you still did it!"

Oikawa's hands clench into fists. "What are you, my  _ mother _ ? I brought you back to life! I sacrificed my soul so you could live and you tell me I shouldn't have? You're just like everyone else in this kingdom. Unappricatiative."

"Oikawa!" He growls. "You're not fucking listening to me! I don't want to fight you because I know I win!"

"Oh? Look who's getting all confident on me. But y' know Iwa-chan, maybe you dying was the best thing to happen to me. Because now-" Oikawa rises from his throne. "I'm much more powerful than before you left!" He hurls a fireball at Iwaizumi. 

"No! I've seen it!  _ I've seen you die _ ! I can't watch it again, Oikawa! I can't kill you again!"

"You're a coward," Oikawa snarls. "First you leave, then you try to get out of fighting me by pulling bullshit. Is that all you'll ever be? A struck down hero in the face of a powerful king? Don't even waste my time."

He makes Iwaizumi's blood boil. It's even worse when he knows it isn't Oikawa speaking, but whatever's controlling him. Oikawa continues to throw things at him, refusing to listen to what he has to say. He knows he's a coward but now that he's finally got the chance, he's not turning away from the one he loves the most.

He finds himself in the same position of what seemed like only mere minutes ago. Oikawa looks solemn below him and Iwaizumi's holding his sword high above his head. Oikawa makes empty threats. Iwaizumi plunges his sword into him as tears run down his cheeks.

Two Oikawa's. He's killed  _ two _ .

How can he be deserving of when Oikawa tells him "I love you" anymore? How does he even have the conscience to say it back?

He falls beside Oikawa and takes his hand in his. The cold, the blood. It doesn't get any better a second time. 

"Hey!"

"Fuck!" Little Iwaizumi tumbles out of little Oikawa's suspension as he's caught off guard by the swear. 

"I just meet you and the first thing you do is swear at me? How do people even like you?" Oikawa crinkles his nose. 

Iwaizumi rubs his side. "We've...never met?"

"Unless you're my soulmate in a past life then no. You don't look familiar. And you'd probably be a bad soulmate with your mouth!"

Iwaizumi isn't sure whether he wants to laugh or cry.

"Well anyway, you're lucky I've got nothing to do. So come with me! We're going to be best friends! I'm Oikawa Tooru!"

"I'm sorry, I'm busy today." Iwaizumi says and runs off. He doesn't look back at Oikawa's struck face. But he knows it just seems like a missed friendship opportunity to him. To Iwaizumi, that's sixteen years of what he'd orbited around, devoted his life to, gone. 

He steels himself though. It has to be like this. If Oikawa isn't attached, as much as it hurts to never be by him, he'll let him go and he'll never become a tyrannous ruler. 

He spends the rest of the day with his mother and crying in his room for a reason he's not sure she'll ever comprehend. 

He wakes to his mother shaking him years later. The day of the coronation. Except Oikawa isn't looking for him, he's just part of the knights and a time he's going to be late for. 

He takes his place among the other knights for a battle he hopes Oikawa won't have a connection to. 

They march out, Iwaizumi holding on to the only thing he has. That hope.

It hurts less when Oikawa doesn't look back at him in wide-eyed terror. Iwaizumi vaguely registers the battle's end amongst his too heavy limbs. He hears Oikawa huffing to catch his breath while he almost teeters over from exhaustion. 

"Thank god..." Oikawa mutters before he pauses.

He gasps, horrified and painful. "Everyone...they're all..." He sobs. 

"There has to be-I can't-I  _ can't _ -" He belches beside himself. The blood soaked into the ground, the mangled and cut limbs, the faces of people who can't take that form anymore by physicality and entity-it's too much for one person to look at, let alone leave it to Oikawa himself. He hopes Oikawa moves on, tells someone instead of solving his problems through an act of being struck by terror. But things are never that easy with Oikawa.

It's easy to sink into the feeling of Oikawa's restoration magic, but not before he realizes something is wrong. 

To be fair, everything about the past few "hours" has been erratic in nature but this felt like something was misplaced, like a child putting a square into a circle spot on their toy. 

While his entire body was beginning to heal, he began to feel stronger, unnaturally more powerful. His eyes flashed open to see Oikawa staring directly over him, eyes gleaming red as his pondering frown grows into a smirk.

"Ah perfect! It worked."

"Oikawa..." He began.

"Already talking to me like we're friends? Oh, this is going to work out splendidly."

"What did you do?"

"What I had to. Who knew human emotion was the key to unlocking power beyond my reaches. I should've done this so long ago!" He cackles. "And you will be my knight. And guess what!  _ We'll never lose to another one of Shiritorizawa's soldiers again _ ." He says grimly. "Now come along. I'm sure you've heard but I'm supposed to be crowned king today."

Iwaizumi's legs move on their own to keep up with Oikawa's long strides. 

"What did you  _ do _ ?" He asks again. 

"In case you weren't aware humans are vulnerable, defined by their need to inhale oxygen, have a constantly beating heart. To run and get exhausted, to expand the brain to proportions they're not capable of handling. They're tied down by the compassion of emotion and the desire for love. They are so focused on what they can do to better themselves, how to live longer, how to make everyone happy, that they lose themselves in an unwinnable battle. Human beings don't realize it, but they are flawed in every way possible, pit against a world they have no chance to eternally survive for. Weakness drives goals, but that doesn't rid you of said weakness. They will all fall to the desperation of their own minds eventually, inevitably." Oikawa sneers. "How sad to live with a crutch. But when you're a demon, let's just say-" He flicks his hand up and a blue flare appears. "That we aren't bound to the rules humans are meant to follow." He tosses it behind him, careless. It catches on the ground, lighting the bodies of the entire Aoba Johsai and Shiritorizawa armies alight.

Iwaizumi doesn't have to look in a mirror to know that his eyes have already turned vermillion. 

A storm of brave hero's storm the castle when he wakes up in a bedroom in the said castle. His legs and arms move on their own, anger seething that isn't his, words that he doesn't mean pour from a mouth he doesn't want to move. 

After having the village notice their kind prince turned king and top of the squad knight go down a path of darkness, it seemed the villagers were even more eager to get rid of them rather than when it was just Oikawa. A cruel dictatorship, except this time with an executioner. 

He's seen so many people, so many people he's known. He's executed them without a second thought at the flick of Oikawa's wrist. What Oikawa couldn't do the past few times he now had someone to do it for him. 

He can only assume that he was being controlled on account of his lack of connection to Oikawa because somewhere, he knows that if he was alive then that would be enough. But in this timeline, he picked someone random to compensate for his guilt. 

He didn't need a best friend to die and hold him back. He needed a hostage to repay the lives he thought he was responsible for losing. 

They put up a good fight and injure most of the rebellion but they swarm them in numbers. The villagers swarm him with pitchforks and much to Oikawa's grandiose speed about humanity, he still feels himself fade from being stabbed. Oikawa goes into a head-to-head battle against Hinata, which in the former is slain. 

The last thing Iwaizumi sees is his mother as he sinks into the cold darkness, hand over her mouth and betrayal stinging her tears.

"Hey!" He's woken again. He feels queasy.

Looking at young Oikawa, still so innocent, face pudgy with baby fat that hasn't been outgrown. 

This time though, he has to try a different approach. "What'd you do that for?" Iwaizumi's little voice squeaks in an offended shriek as Oikawa lets him down. 

"Saving you! You were about to fall out of that tree!" 

"Yeah, well I don't need your help." Iwaizumi pushes past him.

"That was so mean! Are you sure you're okay? No one resists the great charms of Tooru!"

"You're gross. Leave me alone." He hates it. He hates every word that's coming from his mouth. He feels like he's spewing poison from every letter, all for the meaning of taking Oikawa's morale down with him. 

"Hey! You can't just leave me like that!" Why was he so goddamn  _ persistent _ ?

"What part of I hate you don't you get?"

Oikawa sticks out his tongue. "I'm not leaving until you tell me why!"

"Ugh, it's because-it-you're a  _ demon _ !" He tries to sound as childish as possible and hopes Oikawa won't take offence but he knows. It's something he's never said and he hates that there was a first to it. 

He sees Oikawa's big doe eyes well up with tears before he sniffs. "Fine then,  _ human _ . I guess I'll just  _ go _ !"

He wants to chase after him so badly, tell him he's sorry, tell him he doesn't mean it in the slightest and that's he's his best friend and he loves him. But he can't. Not if it's all for Oikawa.

He shoots daggers Oikawa's way every time they encounter each other and Oikawa is more than happy to reciprocate. Oikawa leads them to battle where he forces him to be on the very front lines. This doesn't faze Iwaizumi, but the reason this time makes him flinch. 

Oikawa meets his end after Iwaizumi "slips up" and he takes it out on him. He forgets about the Shiritorizawa soldiers too late as a swift blow is delivered to Oikawa's heart and he watches the future king fall dead into his arms. 

The kingdom recovers all those years later, but many people close to Oikawa blame Iwaizumi and put him to death. He hates to see his mother always standing there, watching, pondering when the catalyst point was for her young son. 

The resets seem to fly by at that point as Iwaizumi finds himself at a loss and without enough time much like the hands on a clock or the passing of seasons he never gets to see. When he exhausts all of his unlimited options, he finds it hard to come up with a concrete plan. He'd love to spend all his days with an alive Oikawa at six years old, but the memory is spoiled, over and over again. 

He hears and latches onto certain words too many times. They stain his memories for all of the mess-ups to come. 

_ Traitor, _

_ Betrayal, _

_ Murder, _

_ And the screams, the screams of the cold. _

"Oikawa."

"Iwa-chan! What are you doing here! Everyone's been waiting for you!" Oikawa repeats for at this point must be the eighth time after he takes to befriending Oikawa again on this route.

"Do me a favour and cancel what we have going on today."

"Iwa-chan? Are you sick? Now that I'm looking at you, your unattractive eye bags  _ have  _ been looking darker than usual." He's not even going to question how a physical trait of his is showing amongst a loop he just keeps completing. And he's  _ tried  _ to injure himself and see if it stays to the next loop, but apparently, that wasn't how it worked. 

"I just-" Oh to hell with it. Oikawa might as well know now that it's happened sixteen times already. 

"I'm stuck in a time loop. That first sentence you've said? I've heard it about eight times already."

"Haha very funny. You don't have to make excuses to get out of the attack today Iwa-chan."

Iwaizumi's not sure why he bothered. The fatigue must be getting to him. "God-fucking  _ figures _ ." He scrubs his eyes. "Of course no one would believe such a stupid fucking accusation. I'll see you out there Oikawa."

"Wait! Iwa-chan!" Oikawa grabs his arm. 

Iwaizumi turns around to Oikawa's pensive face. "I'll see what I can do."

He sighs. "Oikawa, that's great and all but it's not going to be allowed. We'll have to go through with it."

Oikawa frowns. "Well, they can't go on without someone to lead them or their lead knight. They'll have to wait whether they like it or not." 

"Oikawa-"

"Iwa-chan I'm not going to be caught skipping and then be dragged back. C'mon, follow me!"

_ Follow me.  _ He says. A spoken promise that Oikawa repeats time and time again.  _ I'll lead you as long as we go together. _

Oikawa ends up taking out all of the astronomy books he can muster to carry. 

"You still have those around?"

Oikawa puffs out a laugh. "I didn't want to get rid of them. I may not have had the time to read them recently, but contrary to what everyone wanted me to do, I don't think I could ever burn them." He blows off the thin layer of dust that sits on top of the books as it goes flying when he grabs it. 

"Astral anomalies..." Oikawa mutters. "Let's start with something first. What happened before?"

Iwaizumi's breathing stutters. "You still believe me?"

"Iwa-chan if you're lying I will personally make you train for an entire day without quitting."

"Okay." He's not sure how he did it but at least he's making progress. "Well, it all started after I passed out after our fight."

"Fight?" Oikawa frowns.

"Uh, it's kind of a long story. I'll get to it later." Iwaizumi would like to avoid this topic as much as he can. He's not sure how inevitable Oikawa's death is, but if he has to keep seeing it, he'd rather not rope Oikawa into guilt too. "I woke up to the day I first met you."

"The one where I saved you? Awe, Iwa-chan we were so tiny!"

"Yeah. Every time I've been making decisions to see if it'll change to see if I can escape the time loop."

"Nothing's obviously worked." 

"Yeah. That day ends and I wake up to today, the attack, the coronation."

"So you've skipped out on years? Who have I been talking to the entire time?" 

"I'm sure it's still me, just not my conscience. I've already lived through this remember?"

Oikawa's face is still crumpled. 

"I'm sorry."

"What? There's nothing you can do about this! I'm just glad to be helping you right now, at this moment."

"Tooru..."

"No. Continue."

He resigns to Oikawa's stubbornness. "I live this day and wake up a few years later, the day of our fight and then I pass out again and the cycle continues."

"Iwa-chan we are going out to war soon. Maybe you have to seal it with love?" Oikawa flutters his eyes exaggeratedly. "When you go off to a battle you might not return from you're supposed to tell people how much you mean to them!"

_ I love you _ .

"No."

"Wha-but Iwa-chan you never know! It could be some pretty townsgirl you're missing out on! Like finding your true love to break the curse!"

"That's not how it works."

"Iwa-chan you're stuck in a  _ time loop _ . How would you know what makes sense and what doesn't?"

"That's exactly why I'm sure it has nothing to do with love."

"Fine!" Oikawa huffs. "Unfortunately it seems these books have nothing to do with time loops. Not surprising, but at least we have something."

"We do?"

"Right here." Oikawa points out a header to one of the pages. 

_ Counterspells to the Cast of Unknown _

"That sounds like gibberish."

"Keep reading!"

_ When faced with the trial of an unknown spell, there is usually a foolproof method of escaping. Please note these spells often will not have been cast by a user or it had a bond broken over said spell for a long period of time.  _

A list runs down the page but it had been so ravagedly scribbled in black ink the words were illegible. 

_ The cure to said spells is often a lesson or a breakthrough. To counter the expected with the unordinary. To go left from right, night from day. True counterbalance. _

"Oikawa, I don't know what the fuck that means. If it involves changing the timelines, I've tried everything."

"Clearly not or you wouldn't be stuck here Iwa-chan~" Oikawa grins, amused.

"Okay, can we just- I don't know- hide here for the day? I don't think we should go out."

"Because of something you've seen in the loop?"

"Yeah."

"Okay." Oikawa slides down the bookshelf with Iwaizumi and leans on his shoulder. 

"What did you see?"

"I-"

"Iwa-chan, you've already told me you're in a time loop. Since you've already told me and if it doesn't work, then it'll just reset right?"

He hates how convincing Oikawa is, especially when he tilts his head ever so slightly and his eyes seem to lure him into looking more innocent. 

"We all die, at the battle. Everyone except for you."

Oikawa's eyes widen in fear. 

"And of course you'd be an  _ idiot  _ and try to save me. You did some spell that gives away your soul and you rule as demon king. I've killed you...so many times on that last day." 

"Iwa-chan..."

"Hey, no, it's fine. I'm going to get out and make sure this doesn't happen to you, okay?" He rubs Oikawa's shoulder. 

"I don't get it. How can you say that so easily? Especially when you have to keep doing this over and over. You're the one who sees me die, not the other way around."

"You're my best friend dumbass. Of course I'd try to save you." 

Oikawa's shock melts to a smile. "Thanks, Iwa-chan." He mumbles. He sinks into Iwaizumi and the two of them fall asleep on the floor.

" _ WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO DOING? _ "

They both jump at the scream. One of the maidens that run the palace and is normally forgettable shrieks in their face. 

"As much as you two together is cute,  _ this  _ is what you decided to do? You skip out on the raid so no one can leave and now guess what? Shirtorizawa's at the gate!" Her normally passive workings and slick movements doing tasks around the castle now compare nothing to her boisterous actions. Her tone quickly changes to desperation as they look at her worriedly. 

"I'm sorry for yelling your majesty and sir, but I can't go home without your help. I have no fighting experience and you weren't anywhere to be found. Please...I need to go home to my wife our children."

"I'm so sorry." Oikawa jumps. "C'mon Iwa-chan, we have to go!" 

"Thank you!" Iwaizumi calls behind him. Some knight and prince they are. 

The town is already torn into shambles. Shiritorizawa's army must've got impatient or feel as though they'd been baited. 

This timeline is much, much worse. 

Families fly in fear as Shiritorizawa starts to cut them in half. They're merciless, taking down anything that breathes. 

"Iwa-chan! Over here!" Oikawa calls for him while he burns some of the Shiritorizawa soldiers without hurting anyone else. 

They try, god do they try. 

The army is once again no match and defending civilians didn't make it any easier. They fall like flies all around them. But Iwaizumi won't let this Oikawa die, not anymore. 

When a soldier darts out, however, he recalls demon king Oikawa's speech. 

_ Humans are weak _ .

But one of his fatal flaws was remembering that anyone can get pierced by a sword. 

The next time he wakes up, he attends Oikawa's funeral. Oikawa had looked back to him that day, a smile still on his face. 

" _ It's okay Iwa-chan. There's always another chance. _ "

He tries everything after. He takes Oikawa's astronomy book and rewrites his entire life, more than just one change, and does it as much as he's given within the first two days. 

Nothing cracks at the foundation. Death follows him like a cloak. He wonders when or more specifically  _ if  _ he'll get out, he'll never be afraid to die again. 

"You're an idiot."

"Huh? Iwa-chan? What was that for?"

He simply shrugs before he feels the pain of a weapon slicing his insides on the grounds outside the castle much later.

He's so tired. 

He's so cold.

A month of days passes. Iwaizumi's almost resigned to shove his head in Oikawa's bookshelf and never come out. 

He flips through his astronomy books, pleading for an answer but all he can think of when he comes up to them is Oikawa taunting him about love and he finally having a moment of rest before having to move on to a new day. Almost like Oikawa was his own comforting repellant. 

He tries to sway Oikawa's mind in gestures he'd never do the first time around. They never work. On a basis of artificiality, he binds himself to the loop of a neverending moira. 

He loves him, he really does, but he doesn't know how to confess and doesn't know how to speak when his tongue gets dry and the words shrivel up. 

Sometimes he wishes he was born with the ability to love and not to fight. 

He sees Oikawa die again. Blood splatters the ground. Tears stay in his eyes. His blood goes lifeless, cold,  _ freezing. _

" _ I love you _ ." He mutters.

Iwaizumi's cracked soul shatters into the million drips of blood that Oikawa has trickled into the ground.

He plays with Oikawa the next time as he burns away all the innocence and happy expectation he gets until a time far into the future. Oikawa tries to say goodbye to him, but he insists on a sleepover, wanting to stay together with him as long as time will allow. 

He wakes up, exhausted. He's expanded what his body is capable of and his mind simply cannot take the effects of all of the time loops. He sees it play out every day, the chaste happiness, the tide of battle, the stench of death. It is permanently burned into his brain. 

How can you counterbalance a few days when your life is tied to a string of fate, forever balling up over and over until every thread is interwoven with each other?

"Iwa-chan! What are you doing here! Everyone's been waiting for you!"

"Oikawa."

"Iwa-chan! You look worse than usual and that's saying something." 

Iwaizumi doesn't have the strength to hit him. Oikawa however expects it to find nothing.

"Iwa-chan." His voice melts with concern. "Are you really okay?"

"Tooru," He repeats. "Someone once told me that when you go off to battle, one that you might never return from you're supposed to tell people how much you mean to them. So, before we go, I love y-"

Oikawa cuts him off with a swift kiss and a choking sob. 

"We're not dying today, okay?"

"Oikawa..." Iwaizumi holds his palm to Oikawa's cheek.

"You wouldn't have told me that if you meant what you said. So do you really mean that Hajime?"

"I've meant it through every trace of fate we've ever touched."

He collapses into Oikawa's arms.

"Hajime, you  _ idiot _ !" Oikawa shrieks when he wakes up. He's laying on his bed, Oikawa almost climbed in right beside him. The sunset fades into the night outside of his window. 

He jumps up, almost slamming into Oikawa. "W-where's Shiritorizawa?"

"The army went to fight them. They left right on time and ran into Karasuno's fighters. They were able to take them down." Oikawa smiles.

So why wasn't Karasuno __ a variable before? He wonders. 

_ They left on time  _ echos in his ears. Of course. 

"And your coronation?"

"For tomorrow. I couldn't be crowned king and not appoint my best friend!" He kisses Iwaizumi's forehead. "So c'mon. It's a big day tomorrow, so follow me!" Oikawa tucks them both into his bed. 

_ Don't worry about the nightmare because I'll be right there to help you. _

_ Please trust me. _

_ I'll guide you. _

_ Just follow me. _

He startles awake on the third day, no Oikawa in sight. He dashes to the castle but the servants say they have no idea where he is. He runs all the way across town, desperately looking for the last trace of Oikawa. 

He can't find him dead. 

He doesn't bother finishing what he'll do if it happens.

The sun finally peeks above the horizon, red and oranges shattering the sky. He goes to the only place he can think left to look.

The field is blossoming, the large gardens of wildflowers peaking from above the ground. They cover up to Iwaizumi's shins. He's seen them scorched, bloodied, torn beyond repair. But they remain. They peak at him curiously, swaying through the wind in wonder at his next action. 

Oikawa stands in the middle, his face turned away from him. He wears regal blue clothes, clothes saved only for special occasions. He's never seen Oikawa wear it. Special occasions included his coronation where he's only ever seen Oikawa wear red to match his blood-red eyes. 

Two stones sit in front of him with engravings Iwaizumi can't make out written on them. One has his sword plunged into the ground in front of him and the other has a shattered crown. 

Oikawa turns his head to look at him and a single tear runs down his face. His eyes look a vitreous blue. He's not sure where the reflection off of his eyes is coming from, but he looks like what Iwaizumi feels like, a suspension of a frail soul. 

"You made it," Oikawa whispers. "Finally, finally-" More smooth tears run down his face.

Iwaizumi runs to Oikawa, perfect, glowing, Oikawa who was as warm as the sunrise behind him. 

"I'm so sorry," Oikawa whispers into his shoulder. 

"I'm sorry it took me so long."

"No. I did that to you. I put you into that loop. You died in my arms and you would yell at me for being an idiot, but when I revived you, I was terrified. If I had killed you-" Oikawa sobs. "I didn't mean it. I'm so sorry. Please, I-"

"It's not your fault. You doing that was more than I could ask for on top of my life."

They stand embraced there for an amount of time seemingly correlated to infinity. 

"I became every one of them when you arrived you know." Oikawa starts. "I've seen him be him every time you've been you."

"You know all of the-"

"Yes. I'm sorry."

"Don't be."

The sunrise never goes down, like it's the one stopping time itself.

"You told me once that love would solve all of the problems."

Oikawa giggles. "I did, didn't I." 

"So can I tell you something, Oikawa?"

"Be my guest."

" _ I love you. _ "

" _ I love you too. _ "

_ "Would you do it with me? One last time, the two of us together, for good?" _

_ "The last loop?" He dares to whisper. _

_ "The last loop." _

_ To counter the expected with the unordinary. To go left from right, night from day.  _

_ True counterbalance. _

"Hey!"

**Author's Note:**

> So when I went back and edited this work, it kinda looked like the reason Iwa was in a time loop was a little unclear? So I'm of course here to explain things!  
> So basically when Iwa was dying and Oikawa sacrificed his soul to save him, he didn't really know if the spell was going to work (because he's never needed to use it before obv). So out of fear, he sends Iwa back in a loop to find him again if he dies. Iwa doesn't die and faces Oikawa in their battle but what Oikawa realizes at the last moment is because Iwa's alive, he won't be able to keep living in their timeline because he's now taken his spot. So he tries to warm Iwa in his last words through love (but can't really because of demon corruption). And Iwa gets stuck in the time loop until he can find the right turn of events where he confesses to Oikawa. Hope that makes sense! (And sorry this didn't really fit the childhood prompt but it was in there lmao)  
> Make sure to follow me on twitter @phoenixesse or tumblr @rosiey9 for updates and rebloggings/retweets of people's cool things because I can't do art :)


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